LibriVox recording of The Girl with the Golden Eyes, by Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) Translated by Ellen Marriage (1865-?). Read by Martin Geeson.

"Give me a feast such as men give when they love," she said, "and whilst I sleep, slay me..."

Listeners who like to plunge straight into a story would do well to skip the lengthy preamble. Here, Balzac the virtuoso satirist depicts the levels of Parisian society as a version of the Inferno of Dante - but perhaps keeps the reader waiting too long for the first act of his operatic extravaganza.

Our beautiful, androgynous hero, Henri de Marsay, is one of the bastard offspring of a depraved Regency milord and himself practises the cynical arts of the libertine. His quarry is the exotic Paquita Valdes, she of the golden eyes.

But there is a mysterious third person in this liaison...

The shocking truth of their interrelationships marks this out at once as one of those French novels that Lady Bracknell would instantly ban from the house. (Summary by Martin Geeson)

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This audio is part of the collection: The LibriVox Free Audiobook Collection
It also belongs to collections: Audio Books & Poetry; Community Audio

Artist/Composer: Honoré de Balzac
Date: 2009-11-26
Source: Librivox recording of a public-domain text
Keywords: librivox; audiobook; literature; satire; Comédie Humaine; Paris; seduction; relationships

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: orpheus1925 - - October 18, 2011
Subject: Could have been 5 star
Too bad. The reader is talented, however he is completely oblivious to the fact that his voice follows virtually an identical cadence throughout almost every passage. At the end of every couple sentences or so the readers voice annoyingly and inevitably hits a high cliche falsetto note. This is too great and deep of a work to be read so flippantly and without regard for the content, as ironical as the text is. Its not meant to be read in a mocking voice every damn paragraph. Please.

Reviewer: Philippe Horak - - December 30, 2009
Subject: Excellent recording
It's the tale of Henri de Marsay, a physically beautiful but spiritually empty young man who devotes all his time to the pursuit of sensation and sensual pleasure. He develops a burning lust for the inaccessible golden-eyed girl of the title, Paquita Valdes. De Marsay does manage to seduce her, but becomes enraged when he realizes that she's the kept pet of a hidden rival, for whom he's something of a stand-in during their lovemaking. De Marsay devisies a plan of revenge but by the time he arrives at the seraglio to effect it, Paquita has been murdered by her original lover, who turns out to be none other than Henri's equally beautiful and heartless half-sister.
A very “balzacien” way of depicting Parisian life! Lovely reading by Martin Geeson: many thanks for your time and effort!